Dear Strong Bad,
How you doin'? I have three quick questions...
1. What's the best thing you've ever seen?
2. What's the best thing you've ever done?
3. What's the best thing you've ever eaten?

Later,
Albin J. (from Maryland)

{Strong Bad doesn't read the numbers, and after saying "seen", he immediately follows with "done, eaten." He also whispers "from, from Maryland." Then he clears the screen.}

STRONG BAD:{typing} I'm doing real real {types "rrll rrll"} well Albi. Believe it or not, I've got one answer for all three questions. And that answer is...

{Cut to an image of a video tape labeled "Limozeen cartoon" and "Don't record over for dang's sake!!!"}

BACKGROUND SINGERS:{drawn out} VHS!

STRONG BAD: The only known copy of the failed pilot episode of the Limozeen Saturday morning cartoon shoooooooow!!

{Cut back to the Lappy.}

STRONG BAD:{typing} It only aired once at, like, 4 a.m. some forgotten Saturday. And guess who was already up and eating brown sugar straight from the box? That's right, Strong Sad. But then I got up and started watching TV. If not for my The Cheat-like VHS reflexes, it would have been as lost as four-armed Grimace. {clears screen} I'll let you guys see it, but please, no flash photography or video taping. It could damage the precious oils and {short pause} heavy metals of this priceless piece of television history.

{Cut to the cartoon. The theme song begins. It opens with "Metalmation" appearing in large block letters against a grey background, followed by "presents" in cursive. Cut to a different grey background. Cartoon figures of Limozeen drop in.}

{Cut to the Couch. Strong Bad is sitting on it, while Strong Sad is leaning on it from behind. Strong Bad is smiling.}

STRONG BAD: Oh-ho-ho! So classic!

STRONG SAD: But why are they in space? {Strong Bad stops smiling and looks at Strong Sad} There's no reason for them to be in space!

STRONG BAD: On the contrary, my dear Fatson! There's every reason for them to be in space.

{Title card for "ENCOUNTER AT GROUPULON 5" by A. Chimendez appears. From there, it cuts to the Limozeen members running away from a pair of flesh-colored hands, a pair of blue hands, and two magenta tentacles.}

STRONG BAD:{narrating} So, one of their main goals is to both run away from and give backstage passes to all the hot babeliens of the galaxy.

{The Limozeen members run into their tour spaceship, which takes off. Cut to Teeg Dougland inside the spaceship.}

{Cut to Larry and Garry. The members of Limozeen gasp, and we cut to Mitch Overlord's lair. A rock sting of terror is heard}

MITCH OVERLORD: That's right, Limozeen! I was the one million, six hundred and eighty-five thousand, four hundred and twenty-first caller! {He raises his claw-like right hand, which says MITCH!, and opens and shuts it twice.}

{Fade through grey to the members of Limozeen running again, this time from nothing that can be seen.}

BOZAR: Puzzle me twice, Limo-losers! How are you going to play tonight's show after I turn your instruments into Italian noodles?

{The band is greeted with "boooos" as they attempt to play a concert with their noodle-instruments anyway. A random voice in the crowd yells, "That's not music!" The word NOODLES! flashes in lights behind the stage. Mary eats his noodles instead. We cut to him, who pauses to speak.}

MARY: This is the best show ever, guys! {resumes eating}

{Canned laughter is faintly heard. Cut to Larry.}

LARRY: Mary, quit eatin' your drums!

{Cut to the outside of the tour spaceship flying through space. Nebulon flies past.}

STRONG BAD:{narrating} But most of all, the episode centers around the boys making sure metal stays number one throughout the galaxy.

{The bus speeds off. Cut to Teeg Dougland.}

TEEG DOUGLAND: I'm afraid I've got some bad news, boys. We've been knocked off the charts in the Forbidden Zone by an alternative rock band.

{Cut to Larry, Perry and Mary.}

PERRY: But their bassist is a girl!

MARY: And the drummer's got short hair!

LARRY: And the lead singer wears glasses! {clenches his fists and waves them on either side of his head}

{Cut back to the couch. Strong Bad, whilst still watching the television, throws the remote at Strong Sad.}

GARY: Oh well. I guess I won't be needing this anymore. {He throws his guitar offscreen.}

{Cut to the real Larry on Strong Bad's television, who catches the real equivalent of the guitar.}

LARRY: Oh, thanks, Space Gary! {faces camera} I can't believe we got canceled! Weeeeeell, join us next time, kids! In syndication! Or maybe on DVD!

{Larry plays a short riff. The screen pauses and the TV fades out. Strong Bad returns to the Lappy.}

STRONG BAD:{typing} Whattaya think, Albi? If that's not the best thing you've ever seen, done, or eaten, then may I politely ask you to gouge out your eyes, cut out your tongue, and um, {hesitates} have all your {hesitates again} done {short pause} removed.

The Limozeen cartoon is also likely a riff on Hanna-Barbera cartoons that featured bands who solved crimes or fought villians. In addition to Josie there was Jabberjaw and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids. Teeg Dougland's repeated mantra of "I'm afraid I've got some bad news, boys" is a parody of band managers in such cartoons, who were often only featured as characters for plot exposition.

Mitch Overlord declaring that he was the 1,685,421st caller to Galactic Radio is a take on radio promotional giveaways that require that listeners call a number and be the nth caller to get through in order to win the prize.

In the television industry, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast programs to multiple stations, without going through a broadcast network.

The laugh track used in one scene is a typical element of older Hanna-Barbera cartoons featuring more realistic characters, intended to incite laughter in the same manner as a sitcom.

The entire tape of the Limozeen cartoon includes a "VHS grain" effect, most visible during the black METALMATION intro (note how the background appears to be randomly speckled). This artifact of VHS recording results from multiple generation copies, repeated erasing/recording, and from recording in extended tape speeds.

Strong Bad's remark about alternative bands being "low self-esteemers" refers to such genres as emo and lo-fi. In emo, the bands are stereotyped as having depression. In lo-fi and similar genres, the bands are stereotyped as having no energy.

The URL for the Flash file for this email is sbemail126_mx.swf, for unknown reasons. MX is a version of Flash, released in 2002 (with a subsequent version in 2004). Since The Brothers Chaps said that they are still using Flash 5 (as of an interview that took place over two and a half years after the release of this email), it is possible they needed MX in the email for effects.

This email gives a good answer to Strong Bad's own question in different town when he tries to think up the Best Thing Ever, which at the time he identified as beef stew.

Strong Bad's tape lacks the little tab that can be pushed out to prevent people taping over it, a chief concern with the cartoon tape.

Strong Bad may have accidentally placed the label of the tape over this tab, however, as the label appears to be too long. This would mean the tape is still recordable, hence adding to his concern.

Although elements of the Limozeen in Space cartoon such as the animation style and mention of the popularity of hair metal bands seem to suggest that it would have been aired in the '80s, Larry mentions DVDs at the end, which first hit the American market in 1997.

When Limozeen is flying in the spaceship, the background is looping (there is even a noticeable seam in the background); a common practice in old cartoons. In similar fashion, Limozeen is often shown running away from some off-screen pursuer, using an unchanging run cycle of animation.

Teeg's announcement that the show has been canceled is interesting from a logistical standpoint: For his line to be animated and voiced, the animators would have to have known the fact while they were animating and recording the voices.

Mary is always seen looking into the camera, even when the rest of the characters are looking in a different direction.

Just before Strong Bad sits down at the Lappy, you see almost his entire head, but you can't see the laces on the back of his mask; usually when they show that much of his head (such as in crazy cartoon) you see those laces.

When the space-mobile is flying at supposed hyper-speed, the stars flying by in the background are streaking the wrong way.

When we see the TV and VCR in Strong Bad's basement, the VCR shows no sign of a tape being inside it nor of any playback. (VCRs typically have some type of counter or a "play" graphic on their display.) This could just be a flashback to the day they watched it, although if it is, there is no record graphic lit up.

When the tape is being displayed, Strong Bad is supposedly typing (as his spoken line is seen when the Lappy is shown again). However, the typing sound effect is not heard.

When the band is being chased by "babe-liens", the top tentacle briefly looks like it is not attached to anything.

Teeg Dougland is the name of the director of the Moving Very Slowly video on the strongbad_email.exe DVD. He is identified as the manager of the band at the NYU talk during the showing of a Limozeen coloring book 'game'.

The VCR is still blinking from 12:00 and someone removed the alarm clock that Bubs duct-taped to it.

The guitar that Space Gary tosses is the same one seen in Puppet Time.

As a magical, large-headed trickster, Bozar calls to mind such characters the Great Gazoo from The Flintstones, but his insulting manner and fondness for transmutating objects to cause trouble make it clear that he is most strongly inspired by Superman villain, Mr. Mxyzptlk. His "puzzle me twice" taunt is a reference to the Riddler from the '60s Batman TV show, in which the villains often taunted the Dynamic Duo by mocking their names. The Riddler's catchphrase was "Riddle me this", immediately followed by an obscure clue as to what his next crime would be.

"Metalmation" is a reference to the Filmation animation studio, with the logos looking very similar. Filmation was famous for churning out cookie-cutter cartoons, many of which also took place in space for no good reason.

The repeated "band being chased" segments may be a reference to a Hanna-Barbera '70s staple of stock-footage chase scenes, which appeared most prominently in Scooby-Doo. Also, this may refer to the Beatles, who spent a good deal of A Hard Day's Night—a typical day in the life of the band—running away from adoring female fans. It also recalls the premise of the video game Journey Escape, which the Brothers Chaps mentioned in the commentary for more armies.

"it would have been as lost as Four-armed Grimace"

"Four-armed Grimace" is a reference to the purple McDonaldland character. Grimace was originally named "The Evil Grimace", and he had four arms (replaced with two arms a few years later) so that he could hold many shakes at once.

"On the contrary, my dear Fatson" is an adaptation of "Elementary, my dear Watson", a line often attributed to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes, though he never actually used that exact phrase in the Holmesian canon.

The space logo of Limozeen is very similar to the logo of the Nintendo game series Metroid.

Mary asking "How come they made me fat and have red hair?" draws attention to the manipulation of characters in cartoon adaptations to clearly defined sterotypical roles. In particular, Mary's question refers to the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters, where Dan Aykroyd's character Ray Stantz (from the Ghostbusters film) was modified into an overweight redhead, and frequently acted as comic relief.

Limozeen being kicked off the charts by an alternative band with a girl bassist references the death of hair metal in the early '90s, when bands like Sonic Youth, The Pixies and the Smashing Pumpkins were able to have success. (The aforementioned bands actually all had female bassists.)

The phrase "Chuck Taylor wearin'..." refers to Chuck Taylor All-Stars, designed by Chuck Taylor. "Chucks" are a signature look of Grunge, Punk, and Metal that happened after 1990.

The scene at the end, where the cartoon throws the guitar to the real-life band member, pokes fun at almost every '80s cartoon that had a (semi) famous person behind it—where the cartoon would transition/interact with the real person from off screen: Fat Albert, Alf, M.C. Hammer, Mr. T, the Harlem Globetrotters, and many others all closed the episode with the real-world people.

MIKE: —but no one ever knows—Teeg Dougland, this is his first appearance.

STRONG BAD: Well, I don't know his name {indicating one of the Limozeens}. What's his name? "Lead Singer Limozeen"?

MIKE:{overlapping} That's Gary. That's Gary and Larry.

STRONG BAD: How do you tell 'em apart?!

MIKE: Because I—

STRONG BAD: Oh, that guy is awesome. Mitch Overlord, I wish he was in more episodes of this show that only has one episode.

MIKE: He's labeled, too.

STRONG BAD: Yeah, {laughing} people have—I guess, I guess kids are pretty dumb. You know? So that's what I'm saying. Now that guy doesn't have a label, but you're not gonna mix him up with— Look at those disgusting horns, like, tearing, are those, those are an accident, bursting out of his brain.

MIKE: Man that bass player is really trying to play.

STRONG BAD:{overlapping} Noodles! Noodles! Noodles! Noodles! The crowd should be goin' nuts right now! Man, anytime something flashes in big lights behind the band at a show, you chant it! You know?

STRONG BAD: I think you look kinda like that tall guy in the middle {one of the Limozeens}.

MIKE: I definitely don't— that's Perry.

STRONG BAD: That's Perry. How do you know these guys— they're my favorite band, I can't tell them apart! The only one I know is the one they made be fat and have orange hair. Like, I appreciate that, that that's Ron.

MIKE:{overlapping} That's Mary. Ron?

STRONG BAD:{laughing} Ron Limozeen. Right?

MIKE: His name is Mary Palaroncini.

STRONG BAD: Wait, his name is Mary?

MIKE: Yeah.

STRONG BAD: There's a guy in Limozeen named Mary?!

MIKE: Yes.

{They watch the transition to the live action.}

STRONG BAD: Ooh! Whoa, who's that guy?

MIKE: Live-action cut scene.

STRONG BAD: Man! See, that—it would be awesome to have the real band.

MIKE:{overlapping} Strong Bad, look behind you.

STRONG BAD: What?

MIKE: That's where we are, right there, that sound room that he's in.

STRONG BAD: That guy from Limozeen was in this sound room?

MIKE: That's right.

STRONG BAD: Man, it's almost like this is real, live, fake subtitles.

{Mike laughs.}

STRONG BAD: Right, Mike?

MIKE: That's right.

STRONG BAD: Look, Brett Bretterson is the worst animator, did you know that?

When discussing the role of "worst animator," Strong Bad mentions Mike making Bubs running at him. This refers to a scene in replacement; in that commentary Mike calls that animation "just me being a lazy animator. It wasn't supposed to be funny." This scene is reportedly Craig Zobel's favorite thing on the website.